


Prince Helpless (Hungary's Story)

by ArchangelUnmei



Series: The Flautist's Fairytale [2]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: F/M, M/M, Music, WWII, fairy tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-02
Updated: 2010-09-02
Packaged: 2017-10-11 10:01:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/111183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArchangelUnmei/pseuds/ArchangelUnmei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hungary doesn't think he will ever wake up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prince Helpless (Hungary's Story)

Hungary doesn't think that he will ever wake up.

She wasn't there when Austria fell, she was away attending to her own government. In some ways, she is thankful. She's not sure she would have been able to hold it together if she had been there to watch the light in his eyes go out and his lips turn blue with cold. It's bad enough seeing him now, laid out as though it's for a funeral, every hair in place and his hands folded neatly on his chest.

She comes twice a week, to sit with him and hold his icy hand and talk to him as though it might help. Usually, Prussia is there too, but he looks so haggard these days, and so sad when he looks at Austria that she can't bring herself to protest.

The first few times she comes, she can't help but lean down and kiss his frozen lips, just in case.

"It doesn't work like that," Prussia shakes his head at her. "This isn't a fairytale, and we aren't children anymore."

"He _has_ to wake up," Hungary sounds a little panicky even to her own ears, and she forces herself to calm down and take deep breaths. "After all, he's still here."

"He's still here because his people still think of themselves as Austrian," Prussia lowers his voice, eyes sliding toward the door in case the Third Reich is lurking. He hates what Hitler has done to his brother, Hungary knows, and that is part of why he is here, with her, and with Austria. "Maybe someday, he will wake up. But it won't be at a kiss."

"It'll be a treaty," Hungary nods, her throat tight. "Or something like that."

"Yeah," Prussia nods agreement, leaning over to squeeze her hand briefly. He looks down at Austria again, something unreadable in his face. "You're lucky, Hungary. You're still Magyar inside, you've always been Magyar, you've just gotten a bit bigger and sprouted boobs." Hungary scowls, and would have hit him if he wasn't still talking. "Becoming something else hurts. Trying to retain who you are as your people and government start doing the hokey-pokey. It's not fun."

Hungary just nods, remembering long ago when the Teutonic Knights, the annoying little jackass that she'd started to call a friend, had vanished completely for almost twenty years before grown-up Prussia stepped in to take his place.

Prussia shakes his head, banishing his thoughts. "But anyway, at least Foureyes gets to be unconscious." He looks up at Hungary again. "There's no such thing as romance for our kind, remember?"

"I wouldn't know about that," Hungary murmurs, her eyes returning to Austria, but Prussia pretends he hasn't heard her. Instead, he picks up his flute to play.

The one time Hungary asked him, he said that he only played when he was bored, and you couldn't get more bored than sitting next to a corpse. But Hungary knows that it's really for Austria's sake. If _anything_ can bring him back, music can.

She wonders, sometimes, how often Prussia comes to play for him when she isn't here.

She never has the heart to ask.

She is there in 1945, while the Allies sign laws and governments are reinstated. She holds his hand, feeling blood begin to flow and warmth return.

When she sees his eyelids flutter, she begins to cry in relief in joy, and leans down to kiss him as soon as his eyes are open.

She is there to welcome Austria back to sovereignty.

Prussia is not.

~*~

**Historical Notes:**

**Anschluss:** In 1938, Austria was annexed into the German Third Reich and ceased to exist as an independent nation. After the end of WWII in 1945, the Allies restores Austria's power legally, though it wasn't until 1955 that Austria regained complete, independent sovereignty. My headcanon is that Austria was comatose during those years.

**Hungary:** Hungary actually was a member of the Axis during WWII, and she wasn't a puppet state or an annex. She retained her own government, though they were highly dictated by German policy.

**Magyar:** The Magyar were a group of warring nomadic tribes that were eventually gathered together and united into the Kingdom of Hungary. The Hungarian peoples and government have been remarkably stable over the centuries (especially compared to, say, France or Italy). The Hungarians still refer to themselves as Magyar.


End file.
